Discover Dandenong Creek

Dandenong Creek is an important waterway that winds through Melbourne's urban landscape. It provides an important habitat link for fauna and flora, and offers a variety of passive recreational opportunities.

Starting in the Dandenong Ranges, the creek makes its way through the City of Greater Dandenong, joins the Patterson River, and flows into Port Phillip Bay. The Dandenong Creek Trail extends approximately 43kms, and provides the ideal way to explore the creek by foot or bicycle.

Council is working in partnerships with the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DECCA), formerly known as the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP), and Living Links to deliver a series of amenity, revegetation and habitat enhancement projects. These will encourage more people to visit Dandenong Creek and make this important landscape more appealing to fauna and flora.

Discover Dandenong Creek comprises of two key projects:

• Our Catchments, Our Communities – Revegetation
• Peri Urban Weed Management Partnerships – Weed control

Each year in April, we celebrate Dandenong Creek at the annual Discover Dandenong Creek Festival.

Our Catchment Our Communities 

Funded by the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP), this four-year project focuses on creating habitat for fauna and flora, and improving amenity for recreational walkers and cyclists. Revegetation works include creating new garden beds and planting more plants into existing vegetated areas.

Community members have also helped - planting thousands of plants at planting days. For more information on next planting day events, visit Council's Events calendar.

Amenity works include creating an aesthetic avenue of trees along Dandenong Creek Trail, and installing some additional seating.

Peri Urban Weed Management Partnerships

The Peri-urban Weed Management Partnership program is funded by the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DECCA), formerly known as the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP), and aims to protect native plant and animal species in Melbourne’s peri-urban areas from high risk weeds. The program is building on the achievements and investment delivered under the Peri-urban Weed Management Partnership 2016-2021 initiative. The City of Greater Dandenong is facilitating the 'Lower Dandenong Creek Biodiversity Connection Project' with project delivery partners, Parks Victoria, the Bunurong Land Council Aboriginal Corporation, Melbourne Water, Knox City Council and the City of Casey. Council and our project partners will receive a total of $340,000 over the 2021-2025 grant project period to target weed control priority locations within the project footprint.

You can help by removing weeds from your garden. Check out pages 58 to 61 of Council's 'Growing Biodiversity' booklet to get some ideas about alternative plants that would make great replacements.